Felipe Massa: “Technical changes are still needed for Ferrari to make everything work at its best”. Felipe Massa opens up on Ferrari's prospects for next season.

Some technical changes are still needed
After the ‘stasis’ between 2022 and 2023, Ferrari is called upon, looking ahead to the 2024 Formula One season, to make a significant leap in competitiveness to challenge Red Bull again in the pursuit of championship titles. There is hope that in Milton Keynes, they haven’t kept too many aces up their sleeve for the upcoming Formula One season (Christian Horner emphasized that the RB19 was 60% an RB18, and Adrian Newey expressed optimism about the qualities of the RB20 to Eddie Jordan).

Carlos Sainz has expressed great optimism about the possibility of closing the gap with Red Bull this winter. On a design level, the Ferrari 2024 will have a new chassis and a new rear end, learning from the lessons of the past two years while keeping in mind the strengths of the two cars that still managed to achieve five victories (four in 2022 and one in 2023, the only car to beat Red Bull on Sunday, as McLaren also succeeded with Oscar Piastri in the Saturday Sprint in Qatar).

As a guest at the 58th edition of the Golden Helmets – an event sponsored by Autosprint and Aci Sport – Felipe Massa emphasized that from his point of view, it is difficult to predict Scuderia Ferrari’s 2024, and some technical changes are still needed for a full resurgence in championship ambitions: “2023 was not as good a year as the previous one. In a winning team, everything must work perfectly, as we have seen with Mercedes first and then with Red Bull. It’s difficult to understand if Ferrari can be competitive next season; probably, some technical changes are still needed to make everything work at its best.” – the former Ferrari man pointed out.

“Sure that Ferrari’s support will come”
Felipe Massa is also involved in a legal battle with F1 related to the 2008 World Championship, won by Lewis Hamilton but ‘tainted’ by the Singapore Grand Prix crash-gate involving Renault to favor Fernando Alonso’s victory: “At the moment, Ferrari is waiting to see how this case will go – Felipe Massa’s words – I am sure that the support of the Scuderia will come because this fight also concerns the team and the fans. In any case, I will continue, with or without Ferrari.” – the Brazilian concluded.